FORT MYERS, Fla. — A Fort Myers police officer was seen on video pulling a gun on two teenagers and then shocking one of them with a Taser.
The video is exploding on social media, but did the officer use excessive force, or was it justified?
Families of the young men and those who witnessed the incident Friday night in Dunbar say they want the officer stripped of his badge.
The NAACP is also getting involved, and the Fort Myers Police Department confirmed to Gulf Coast News that the matter is under investigation.
E’Zarius Lockwood said he does not feel like he can walk down the street without a police officer coming to question him.
That is after the 19-year-old said he and his friends were at the intersection of Henderson and Lincoln, just off of MLK Boulevard, when they pulled up behind a police officer. He was inside a car that sounded its horn to let the officer know they were pulling in behind him.
That is when they said the officer approached, and video shows the officer holding his gun and pointing it at Lockwood and his friends. The officer is then seen slamming Easter Clarence Alexander against a car when the two men were told to get back into their car.
“I asked him, 'What you going to do, shoot me?' He was like, 'Get in the car,' but I know me, and if I get in the car, he's going to be able to shoot me. Really, I was scared and feared for my life,” Alexander said.
Lockwood said he tried to de-escalate the situation, and that is when the officer shocked him with a Taser.
“He didn't have to come out the car and put his firearm on us. He could be like, 'You guys come talk to me and everything.' It didn't have to go that far,” Lockwood said.
Their families visited the FMPD looking for answers and received a copy of the police report.
Lasahaundra Lockwood said she believes the officer needs to be removed from the force and held accountable for his actions.
The family then visited with NAACP President James Muwakkil and asked him to get involved.
“We do officially request a meeting with Chief Jason Fields along with the families and others involved,” Muwakkil said.
The FMPD confirmed it was investigating the matter.
“Per policy, the police department will conduct a thorough review of the force used in response to resistance,” a department spokesperson said.
Gulf Coast News showed the video to retired longtime officer Mike Hollow, who said he believes the video does not tell the entire story.
“There's something more going on there. That officer gave a direction of, 'Get back in your car or I'm taking you to jail,'” Hollow said.
The FMPD agreed, saying the video footage being shared represents only a segment of the actual incident.
Hollow, who accrued nearly 20 years as an officer, said the men clearly did not comply with the officer's commands.
“Based on what I saw there, I don't see anything wrong with what he did,” Hollow said.
Both teens, however, disagreed when asked if they felt they did not comply with the officer's orders.
“No! Not really,” Lockwood responded.
“I mean, I don't really care about nobody's opinion. I know what really went down, and I'm going to stick with what I see,” Alexander said.
Gulf Coast News spoke to Police Chief Jason Fields on Monday, following the viral video on social media, he told us that video doesn't show the whole incident.
"A lot of times people will get one version, one portion, one perspective of a scene, and you can't base an entire, investigation on that," said Chief Jason Fields. "You have to look at everything and a lot of those investigations are very fluid because we have to look at, all the camera angles, we have to talk to all the witnesses we have to talk to anybody that may be a potential witness to something as well."
Fields is asking the public to stay patient and trust the process.
"We want to take emotion out of it, we want to deal with just the facts, we want to ensure that a everybody was safe, during that incident. We want to make sure that also policy was followed to ensure we have a good process in place," Fields added.
Now, it's up to the FMPD to decide if the officer did anything wrong.
Gulf Coast News chose not to show the officer's face since he has not been charged with doing anything wrong.
Body camera and dashcam videos have been requested from the department; however, that is not likely to be released until the investigation into the officer is completed.
“I think, like more people feel compelled to say something now if they hadn’t been before.”
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